It was day three! Today we were gonna move from Tokyo to Osaka by Shinkansen, the famous bullet train. As I mentioned in earlier post (check it here), we bought JRpass which allow us to travel all around Japan and ride Shinkansen (except NOZOMI and MIZUHO) with no additional charge. If you are using JRpass, you can directly ride the Shinkansen without seat reserved. However, if you go in a large group, you probably want to reserve your seat. You can reserve seat for Shinkansen in almost all JR stations. Just go to the JR office or JR Shinkansen office.
Prior departure, make sure you know the Shinkansen schedule, train name, and track. To reach Shinkansen line, first you need to enter JR station. The special gate for Shinkansen located inside the JR Station. In Tokyo station, you can see the sign board to Shinkansen gate. There are 2 Shinkansen gates, the one that head to north Japan (Akita, Hokaido, Tohoku area) and south (Osaka, Kyoto). Make sure you enter the right gate. The sign board is pretty easy to follow.
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| Shinkansen gate to Osaka |
While traveling by Shinkansen, passengers are allowed to bring cabin size luggage. The place for luggage is quite small. So, if you bring a large size suitcase, you should consider put it on the station's lockers or send it using delivery service. If you want to use locker, you better go earlier. The large size lockers are usually fully occupied by afternoon. There are a lot of lockers inside big stations. If one is full, you have to find other lockers. The price vary according to its size. We used the biggest one and it cost 600 JPY per day.
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| The locker in Tokyo Station |
You are allowed to eat and drink inside the Shinkansen. If you take the afternoon train, you probably want to buy bento so you can have lunch on board. We rode HIKARI Shinkansen from Tokyo to Shin Osaka. The journey took about 3 hours. If you plan your trip to the south, you better keep your eyes open for the first 70 minutes of your journey. If you are lucky and the weather is nice, Mount Fuji can be clearly seen from the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka on the right side of the train (seat D and E ordinary car). You can reserve seat and ask for "mountain side" instead of "sea side". We were pretty lucky to have clear weather and catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji.
Osaka Castle
Long story short, we arrived at Shin Osaka station. We had our first Japanese Sushi as our lunch.
Then, we directly went to our hotel which is located 5 minutes from Shin Osaka station, checked in, put our luggage, and went to Osaka Castle. Since we only had half day to explore Osaka, we decided to visit the iconic Osaka Castle. From Shin Osaka, we took train to Osakajokoen station, exit no 1 and 3, then walked around 15-20 minutes. The sign to Osaka Castle is clear. Since it was started to get dark (in winter, the sun set faster), we decided not to enter the castle.
Osaka is somehow colder than Tokyo in winter. After took several pictures, we went back to the station. Near the station, there were some street food tent. Apparently, in the concert hall near Osaka Castle, a famous local group band was about to hold a concert. There, we tried some local street food, including the famous Osaka's takoyaki, okonomiyaki, rice craker, and meat that cooked with wine.
Dotonburi and Shinsaibashi
After visited Osaka Castle and tried its street food, we visited Shinsaibashi night market. Basically, Dotonburi road and Shinsaibashi located across eath other. You can access both through Subway Midosuji line and stop at Shinsaibashi station. You can find many branded and non-branded shops in Shinsaibashi like food, tax free shop, cloth, shoes, and a pretty big Daiso (JPY 100 store). We spent quite a long time in Shinsaibashi to shop since the price is pretty cheap.
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| Shinsaibashi |
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| Dotonburi |
On day 4, we will visit Universal Studio Japan and experience the magic in Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Stay tune for my next post! :D
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